Last night as I was working, I had a thought: if right now I had to give somebody my best advice about life and I knew they would follow it, what would I tell them?
The answer came surprisingly quickly: Never cease your struggle to overcome your weaknesses, achieve your dreams, realize your full potential, and find true love.
In the talk Shipshape and Bristol Fashion, Elder Cook emphasizes the importance of self-control in the daily grind to choose future rewards over current satisfaction. He said, "After years of study, one of his professional colleagues reported that “self-control is like a muscle: the more you use it, the stronger it gets. Avoiding something tempting once will help you develop the ability to resist other temptations in the future."
That's very comforting on one hand. Change is hard, but not impossible. So, how can I overcome my own weaknesses, achieve my own dreams, and realize my own full potential?
Well, by starting small and overcoming things that are easy. That will give me the strength to later try and overcome things that are large.
So, I'm going to make a list of:
Things I want to STOP doing:
Playing LWG online.... at all
Telling myself girls don't like me
Thinking I'm not handsome
And then a list of:
Things I want to START doing
Attending the temple
Doing Family History for at least 15 minutes a day
Stretching, doing flexibility exercises
Eating vegetables on a daily basis
Praying long and hard about life
Saving at least 10% of my income in a long-terms savings account for retirement.
Note: The consequences of not living the gospel are really almost too much to bear. What if I should stop reading my scriptures? That would lead to weakness and indulging in transgression that would keep me out of the temple? No temple marriage. No beautiful, loving Sister Harrison. The Lord truly is your source of all blessings, and you need to live with a constant awareness that your personal righteousness is the key to their continual receipt.
The answer came surprisingly quickly: Never cease your struggle to overcome your weaknesses, achieve your dreams, realize your full potential, and find true love.
In the talk Shipshape and Bristol Fashion, Elder Cook emphasizes the importance of self-control in the daily grind to choose future rewards over current satisfaction. He said, "After years of study, one of his professional colleagues reported that “self-control is like a muscle: the more you use it, the stronger it gets. Avoiding something tempting once will help you develop the ability to resist other temptations in the future."
That's very comforting on one hand. Change is hard, but not impossible. So, how can I overcome my own weaknesses, achieve my own dreams, and realize my own full potential?
Well, by starting small and overcoming things that are easy. That will give me the strength to later try and overcome things that are large.
So, I'm going to make a list of:
Things I want to STOP doing:
Playing LWG online.... at all
Telling myself girls don't like me
Thinking I'm not handsome
And then a list of:
Things I want to START doing
Attending the temple
Doing Family History for at least 15 minutes a day
Stretching, doing flexibility exercises
Eating vegetables on a daily basis
Praying long and hard about life
Saving at least 10% of my income in a long-terms savings account for retirement.
Note: The consequences of not living the gospel are really almost too much to bear. What if I should stop reading my scriptures? That would lead to weakness and indulging in transgression that would keep me out of the temple? No temple marriage. No beautiful, loving Sister Harrison. The Lord truly is your source of all blessings, and you need to live with a constant awareness that your personal righteousness is the key to their continual receipt.
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